You’re Reading Colossians Wrong
Colleen Tinker, you go way off from the actual Bible text in Colossians 2:13-17 in this video.
It does not say, “Let no mam judge you about THE Sabbath DAY”, but “let no man judge you about the Sabbath DAYS!” It says “sabbaths” because it’s plural—multiple Sabbaths—thus a group of Sabbath-days, more than a single DAY. The seventh-day Sabbath is never designated as a “shadow of things to come.”
By your mistake of “the Sabbath day”, you lead people into error of thinking the seventh-day weekly Sabbath was nailed to the cross, when it was actually the “Sabbath day”. The festival sabbaths of Leviticus 23 (seven annual sabbaths that were to be observed according to CALENDAR DATES and not every seventh day. These are the “Sabbath DAYS” that were shadows and nailed to the cross. The seventh day, one single day, is not “Sabbath days”. Neither is the seventh day a “shadow” of future things that were fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross.
The seventh-day Sabbath is a MEMORIAL pointing BACK to creation, not forward to the crucifixion. There is nothing is the fourth commandment that would point to Christ being crucified; no meat or drink offerings are included.
Colossians REQUIRES “Sabbath DAYS”, not “the Sabbath DAY” as you erroneously stated.
—VIA YOUTUBE
Response From Jim Liley, Former Adventist YouTube channel moderator: Then your own Seventh-day Adventist apologist and theologian was wrong. Here are some links for further information.
Here is an excerpt from the first article.
Even the late Adventist Sabbath apologist Samuele Bacchiochi wrote that Colossians 2:16 DOES have the weekly sabbath in view. He nevertheless argued FOR its continued sacredness and attempted to assign a ceremonial explanation for the passage, but even he acknowledged that Paul did have the weekly Sabbath in view.
Here’s the reality. Adventists do not use a normal hermeneutic for reading Scripture. They do not believe it is inerrant; they believe it has errors (just as Ellen White has errors) that must be explained and corrected. They use proof-texting which takes passages out of context and uses them to prove their pre-existing doctrinal biases.
In context, Colossians 2:16 means exactly what it says. Furthermore, the book of Galatians is clear that to return to the law is to return to the elemental things of this world (Gal. 4:1–11). Paul says in Galatians the same thing he is saying in Colossians: to return to the law of Moses on this side of the cross is to be enslaved by a spiritual power exactly the same as paganism! Paul is writing to Gentile converts; they hadn’t been under the law before becoming Christian; they had been pagans worshiping false gods “which by nature are no gods” (Gal. 4:8). To add the law and its requirements to their faith in Christ was exactly the same as returning to paganism! The law, having been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus by His life, death, and resurrection according to Scripture, was a “weak and worthless elemental” thing which would enslave them exactly as paganism enslaved them. (Emphasis mine)
Those in the SDA counterfeit pseudo-Christian organization believe they and they alone have been given the God particle of biblical interpretation.
The Sabbath Was NOT Part of the Ordinances Against Us!
You need to understand the handwriting of ordinances which were against us so that you know what exactly was nailed to the cross. The Bible doesn’t say its the 10 commandments. Also, Sunday worship is not a memorial for the resurrection, Jesus arose on the first day, therefore fulfilling the Feast of First Fruits which was an annual feast; therefore, making it a weekly “ceremony” is totally unbiblical. Paul here makes it clear that Baptism is the memorial along with the Lord’s supper.
The 7th-day Sabbath was not part of the annual feasts, nor was it part of the ordinances against us. If you’re going to tear down the fourth commandment then you are also tearing down the other nine.
—VIA YOUTUBE
Response: The Ten Commandments are the actual words of the Mosaic covenant (Exodus 34:27, 28). They are the core of the covenant; the other 603 laws of the Mosaic covenant are the explanations of how to apply and live those laws. Jesus said He did not come to abolish but to FULFILL the Law—and the Law is a UNIT. All the commandments and the so-called ceremonial and civil laws functioned together as a unit. If anyone broke any one of them—he broke the whole law.
Hebrews 7 explains that the law was given on the foundation of the levitical priesthood. Without the levitical priesthood, the law is null and void and cannot function. Hebrews 7:12 says that when there is a change of the priesthood (from levitical to the order of Melchizedek) there is, of necessity, a change of the law. That law includes the Ten Commandments.
Scripture NEVER separates the Ten from the rest of the law. Sabbath was never changed—it was fulfilled. Hebrews 4 explains that fact. And 2 Corinthians 3 explains that the law written on stone was a ministry of death; the ministry of the Spirit is life and peace. Today whenever people read Moses (the law), a veil covers their heart; but when people turn to the Lord, the veil is removed, and in the ministry of the Spirit, we moved from glory to glory. Read 2 Corinthians 3!
I suggest that you copy Galatians, a few verses at a time, into a notebook, asking God to show you what He wants you to know. After that, copy Hebrews. The Lord is faithful and will teach you. These books must be read IN CONTEXT. If you proof-text from them, you will be missing their message and creating a unique set of beliefs based on your own understanding, not on God’s revelation.
Adventists all read Scripture through an EGW lens of the great controversy and often don’t know they do. Put away your reasoning and your proof texts, and literally read (and copy) the epistles word for word in context, one book at a time. You will be surprised!
Should Christian Jews Keep the Seventh-day Sabbath?
Since the sabbath was given to the Jews as a perpetual commandment, do you think the Jewish believers in Christ are to keep the Sabbath?
—VIA YOUTUBE
Responses: First response (from a member of the Former Adventist YouTube channel): If you believe in Christ you already ARE keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a symbol of being at peace with God and all creation, of being in a state where God is all you really need, like Adam and Eve were in the garden, at peace, at rest. After the fall, God took away that peace, and human beings have searched for this peace for all of history. The Sabbath was given to Moses as a partial restoration, and it was perfectly fulfilled in Christ. We are keeping the Sabbath EVERY SECOND, if we are IN CHRIST. people who keep the sabbath on Saturday think too little of the real Sabbath.
Second response: Have you read any of the New Testament epistles from start to finish, in context? I suggest that you read the book of Galatians in one sitting every day for a month, asking the Lord to teach you what He wants you to know. The read Hebrews. In fact, copy Hebrews into a notebook. And Ephesians and Colossians and Romans—the New Testament makes the new covenant very clear. But you have to read it in context. Proof-texting and your habituated explanations do not reveal what the Bible actually says. You must read God’s word the way He gave it!
The Great Disappointment Was On the Wrong Date!
I was reading in White Washed by Sydney Cleveland this morning in his chapter on the Great Disappointment (pg. 149ff) and was very taken aback on the section explaining that October 22, 1844, was not the 10th day of the 7th month in that year. Somehow, I had not come across that detail before, and it made me MAD! How in the world does the Adventist church continue to deceive people using that date in connection with Daniel 8:14, when it can so easily be proved that the Day of Atonement was in September? I am still kind of spinning from that…
Have you presented that deception in any of your podcasts or at FAF conferences? What has the reaction been from current Adventist members when they find out that the Day of Atonement in 1844 was actually in September, and the only basis for the October 22 date is EGW and Samuel Snow? Or how does the Adventist Church defend the date?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I agree. I have never heard an explanation or excuse for that mistake in the date. I do know that over the years, some people have brought to the powers that be the fact that Miller used the lunar calendar reckoning to find the date of the Day of Atonement in his time scheme, but yet they use the solar calendar to figure their weekly Sabbath.
The Old Testament always establishes the weekly Sabbath by the new moons every month because Israel used a lunar, not a solar, calendar. That’s why, for example, Isaiah 66 says “from one new moon to the the next, and from one sabbath to the next…” The weekly Sabbaths were established by the new moons which marked the new month. The new moon was also a Sabbath.
It has really impacted me that, after the cross and then the destruction of Jerusalem, God “made sure” the world was a gentile world. He oversaw the fact that for two millennia now the world would figure its months on the basis of a solar calendar; the lunar calendar has been abandoned except for certain specific religions (including orthodox Judaism). But months are no longer calculated by the moon—yet the moon was the thing that delineated months and weeks in the Mosaic law.
All to say—about 20-something years ago a group of people from Oregon compiled their research and presented it to the conference brethren at the General Conference and locally showing that the biblical Sabbath was calculated on the basis of a lunar calendar. In other words, they were showing them that Adventism’s Sabbath is not even the “right day” because it’s calculated wrongly. These people were from a reactionary, conservative group of Adventists, and their research was dismissed. They were persistent, however, and ultimately they were disfellowshipped for their trouble.
As I mentioned, it is a known fact that Miller used the lunar calendar to calculate the Day of Atonement using Jewish reckoning—but how they explain that October 22 was actually “right” when it wasn’t the Day of Atonement I do not know. Nor—how they excuse the fact that the revised date was actually the brain child of Samuel Snow, not William Miller—but Miller adopted it.
The closer you look, the worse it reveals itself to be.
Ultimately, they persist in teaching this date according to their tradition knowing that to most Adventists, these details are obscure or inaccessible, most people won’t care, and they’ll whitewash it to look plausible because they must retain the doctrine to retain Adventism.
The bottom line actually is this: EGW received her visions from angels not from God. She actually taught doctrines of demons, and the details of this religion’s beliefs cannot be expected to hang together when examined closely because they are false, and evil is behind them.
This fact is hard to believe at first, but the more one looks, the more clear it becomes that every detail of EGWs doctrines and assertions changes the nature of Christ, the nature of humanity, the nature of the Trinity, and it changes the definition of justification, salvation, and eternal punishment. In short, Adventism uses all the normal Christian words, but the meanings are slightly skewed—just enough to confuse unsuspecting Christians but enough to lead the organization to a completely different destination than if their doctrinal compass were calibrated to the Bible. †
- March 22–28, 2025 - March 20, 2025
- We Got Mail - March 20, 2025
- March 15–21, 2025 - March 13, 2025